The waves of nostalgia washed over the Australian sailing community this week as the America’s Cup winning crew of Australia II from 1983 gathered for a reunion in Sydney, and there were plenty claiming a de facto Australian victory in this year’s regatta as well.

Seven Australian sailors raced on the winning Oracle Team USA squad, including winning skipper
Jimmy Spithill
and master tactician
Tom Slingsby
, a dual Olympic gold medal hero from last year’s London Olympic Games. Emirates Team Zealand, which in one of the most amazing collapses in sporting history lost the series nine races to eight after having a seemingly insurmountable 8-1 lead earlier this month, also included at least two Australians among its ranks. It confirmed that Australia produces many of the best sailors in the world, and has led plenty of people to dream of a team of Australian sailors backed by Australian money.

Yet it seems further away than ever that an Australian team will actually compete for the Cup.

The owner of the winning team, billionaire
Larry Ellison
, is estimated to have pumped more than $500 million of his own money into the sport in the past decade, including this year’s win and the victory in 2010. This year’s effort, which included one of his cutting-edge catamarans sinking in training last October, is said to have cost him at least $100 million.

A key factor that swung the regatta for Ellison’s boat was that a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle, Core Builders Composites, based near Auckland, sent a delivery of new equipment and design experts to Team USA last week.

Spithill said in March it was “crap" that money was the deciding factor. “Larry Ellison didn’t get to where he is by just throwing money," he said. “We have got a budget and we have to stick to it."

The last Australian team to attempt to win the Cup through the Louis Vuitton Cup, the series that decides a challenger to the defending champion, was the Young Australia syndicate organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and skippered by a 19-year-old Spithill in 2000.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

Before then, a 1995 tilt by the Bertrand-skippered One Australia syndicate included a disastrous capsizing of one its yachts midway through a match race, the first in 144 years of racing to lose by shipwreck.

The billionaire’s plaything

Martin Jolly
, the Australian head of global sports business company IMG, which manages Bertrand, says he has noticed more interest in a bid among the corporate sector, albeit at a reasonable cost.

“John has talked about how expensive the America’s Cup is now," Jolly says. “But why can’t it be something that showcases Australian expertise? The technology that is now being used is cutting edge and that is what people like about it. It’s become the formula one of the water and people really like it for that. Yes, it is expensive but if you look at it, the interest in it has been truly global."

Guido Belgiorno-Nettis
, a keen sailor and executive director of Transfield Holdings, says he would be interested in potentially contributing to an Australian team.

“I think what we need to do is get the funding together from two or three interested, wealthy, motivated people who really understand sailing, get some base funding," he says. “I’ll put in a bit . . . but not enough. But there are some very wealthy and well-heeled people who are sailors and who understand it. The question is galvanising them under the right leadership."

“I think it would have been better for us if New Zealand would have won, because next time they would have made sure it wasn’t as expensive," he says. “It really has become a billionaire’s plaything. If they relax the rules a bit and make it cost something like $20-$40 million rather than the $100 million plus it costs now we would have a chance."

The winner of the Cup has the right to set key rules on the length of qualification and the size of crews and boats.

A product made for television

One thing that might attract sponsors is the success of Cup as a television event. It was particularly the case as the series neared conclusion in the lead-up to Thursday morning’s final and deciding race, says
Patrick Delany
, the managing director of the rights holder, Fox Sports Australia.

“I remember when [Fox Sports’ director of acquisitions] Jarrod Frykberg came to me a year ago and said we should look at the America’s Cup," Delany says.

“I said, ‘Why would we do that?’ and he said it was different this time and that the boats were super fast and they were going to put some great datatainment [a cross between data and entertainment] on the screen and it would look really good. So I said, ‘Let’s do it’ and it has actually been really, really good for us."

Reviews about the coverage have generally been extremely positive, though the stunning backdrop of the San Francisco bay and Golden Gate Bridge has helped. But so have the graphics used on the screen to explain the racing rules and tactics to general sports fans, as well as the pictures of the yachts travelling at extremely fast speeds while barely touching the water .

Rob Mills
, chief executive of sports consultancy Gemba, says the thrilling comeback by Team USA will boost interest for the next series, the venue and timing for which will be decided by Ellison and his team.

“That is something that got everyone talking about the event, and means people will maintain that interest in four years time or whenever the next event is. They may not have if New Zealand had won easily."